WORLD WIDE ROBIN HOOD SOCIETY CELEBRATES 20 YEARS AS ONE OF THE LEADING INFORMATION SOURCES ON ALL ASPECTS OF THE LEGENDARY SHERWOOD OUTLAW.On March 17th2018, the Nottingham-based World Wide Robin Hood Society will mark its 20th Anniversary Year with a programme of varied initiatives including:*The publication of a new book about Robin Hood and the legend’s global impact.*A local cookery contest to find the best recipe for a Robin Hood Pie.*Anniversary theme to the Society’s annual “Feather in Your Cap” business awards. *A children’s story writing competition.*Developing an illustrated Robin Hood talk available to groups and societies.Although the Society was originally a membership-based organisation, over the last 2 decades it has evolved into one of the leading internet-based information resources on all things associated with Robin Hood. It is used extensively by the media and the tourism industry and the Society has contributed to numerous global television documentaries and historical features including BBC’s The One Show; Sky Travel Channel’s “Expedition Unknown” series and French TV’s “Secrets Histoire” series. The Society has also participated in hundreds of radio programmes around the globe, including South America, the USA, Europe, Korea and Australia. Society Chairman, Bob White, said “The very first Robin Hood Society was established in London in the 1700’S and was a club or assembly for public debate. It held its popular, regular meetings in the Robin Hood public house in Butcher Row, near Temple Bar, which is how the Society acquired its name. In the 1970’s, a Nottingham-based Robin Hood Society was created by the local historian and Robin Hood expert, Jim Lees, and its members often dressed up in costume as various characters from the Sherwood tales and helped raise funds for local charities. In the Nineties, Nottingham City Council joined forces with the Nottingham Evening Post and set up a Robin Hood Club especially aimed at youngsters, which featured a series of cartoon woodland animals known as “The Tails of Sherwood”.The present day, internet-based World Wide Robin Hood Society was originally the inspiration of co-founder and sponsor, Mike Douglas from Hull, who established a successful communications business in Nottingham in the late 1990’s. He said “Over the past twenty years the Society has seen many changes but the phenomenal global interest in Robin Hood has never faltered and the legendary outlaw continues to be an iconic figure with a massive international fan base, and he regularly features in new films, books and the global media.”For further information contact Bob White on e-mail at bob@robinhood.info or by phone on (0115) 9523183 or mobile 07504 852731 or visit the Society website at www.robinhood.infoRead more...

American politician, Senator Joe McCarthy is probably best known for his obsessive and unsubstantiated accusations in the early 1950’s, when he repeatedly insisted that communists had infiltrated the State Department! Following his appointment in 1953 as chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, he embarked on a crusade of persecution that involved aggressive cross-examination and damaging innuendo aimed at many innocent citizens, celebrities and officials.

The movie and television industry was particularly targeted and several US scriptwriters and technicians sought sanctuary in the UK, where commercial television was beginning to take-off. Using assumed names, they wrote scripts for many early ITV drama series, including the popular “Adventures of Robin Hood” black and white television series starring Richard Greene, which Sir Lew Grade’s ITC company had just agreed a deal to produce and so was eager to learn and benefit from some American expertise.

Because the series became extremely popular in America and eventually ran for a staggering 143 half-hour episodes, ironically, certain scriptwriters occasionally slipped in some hidden meanings within their plot-lines that indirectly made subtle comment about the McCarthy era “witch hunt” back home!

In 1989, the critically acclaimed thriller movie “Fellow Traveller”, starring Daniel J. Travanti (of Hill Street Blues fame) used the background to these Robin Hood links to great effect and the film was scripted by local Nottingham writer, Michael Eaton. Described by one reviewer as “crackling with great one-liners” the story cleverly intertwined the production of the television series with the intelligent plot.

Back in the USA, Senator McCarthy had found his power substantially diminished when in 1954, the Senate formally censured him for his methods.